With the illegal betting market in Asia worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the tentacles of organised crime have reached into football leagues from Australia to Finland. But England’s leagues, the authorities assured the paying public, were clean – a prospect which made the birthplace of football an even more attractive target for illicit gambling syndicates.

Chris Eaton, Fifa's former head of security who is now director of sport integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security says match-fixing is “endemic” in football.

"It is indicative of a global problem. We seen match fixing grow exponential rate over the last five years. It has grown at the same size and the at the same rate as sport betting has grown.

"Sport betting is the cause of modern match-fixing. Without the ability to defraud sport betting organisations for massive amounts of money there would be no money to pay for match-fixing."